#burns and Allen

[citizenscreen]

Burns and Allen photoshoot for Look magazine’s "Fall TV Preview” in 1955. Love this!

[deliriumthinker]

happy birthday to incomparable Gracie Allen!

Gracie Allen was an American performer who was most known for opposing the straight lines in comedy.

She’s listed as a main inspiration for Delirium’s way of speaking. She’s fed a straight line and gives back a thousandfold.

(via The Sandman Companion by H.Y. Bender)

[retrotariotr]

Gracie decides she is running for the job of President of the United States.

[leifandthorn]

One of those strips with a bunch of layers packed into a few short panels (it was very satisfying to watch readers decipher them all).

Future Thorn: doing the BTTF move of giving a future celebrity's name as his own

Hedge: thinks she's met someone else going stealth with a non-Iuilic stage name (it's the fantasy 1930s, the average person can't just look this stuff up on Crystalpedia)

Grassie: has no idea what's going on :))

[comediaclassicablog]

New kid Bob Newhart with vets Jack Benny, George Burns, and Gracie Allen

[oldshowbiz]

McCadden Productions, the company run by George Burns, was headquartered at 1040 North Las Palmas on the ancient backlot originally built by Harold Lloyd. A large Burns and Allen photo is affixed to one of the soundstages.

[travsd]

A Century of Burns and Allen: A Valentine's Day Podcast

As we promised here back on George Burns’ birthday, the multi-talented Burns and Allen maven Lauren Milberger and myself have recorded a special podcast conversation in celebration of the full century that has elapsed since the formation of that beloved comedy team. We timed the show’s release for today (Valentine’s Day) in honor of Burns and Allen’s great love affair. Lauren and I spoke by…

[agentianlegend]

Not me basing my entire personality off of the George Burns and Gracie Allen Show

if you were a weird child who grew up on your parents/grandparents old comedy collection that warped your sense of humour with british nonense and jokes that have been around since the vaudeville era you may be eligible for financial compensation

[meoriesman49]

Apartment_Building_Next_Door

Apartment_Building_Next_Door

Check out this episode! Burns & Allen Show

[citizenscreen]

Legendary voices for #NationalRadioDay

[therileyandkimmyshow]

Podcast Actress/Comedienne Gracie Allen Golden Age of Radio Tribute

[mjschryver]

[retrotariotr]

Burns and Allen (The Thanksgiving Show)

Burns and Allen were an American comedy duo consisting of George Burns and his wife, Gracie Allen. They worked together as a successful comedy team that entertained vaudeville, film, radio, and television audiences for over forty years.

[herbirdglitter]

Send help Gracie is losing

SHE MUST WIN. SHE MUST.

[ilgalantuomo]

Gracie Allen was the original comedianne to kill misogyny with bullshit. She could make a funny bit and keep deadfaced.

A Millennial Feminist’s Tribute to Gracie Allen

George: “Say, Gracie, is there anything that’s impossible for you to do?”

Gracie: “No, but when a thing’s impossible, it’s harder for me.”

————

All right, folks. It’s late in the day, but I couldn’t let it pass without recognizing the birthday of one Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen, born on July 26 in… 1906? 1902? 1895? She was so cagey about her birth year that even her husband, George Burns, didn’t know it. And he didn’t care.

So why do I want to bring your attention to Gracie Allen—actor, comedian, dancer, singer, aphorist, abstract artist, concert pianist, one-time partner to Fred Astaire, and presidential candidate? 

Well, for one, check out that resume. ^

But of course, in the interest of brevity, many writers end up classifying her as a “Dumb Dora.” And those who might not care to know her work better might easily disregard her as a relic of a less enlightened age. Trust me, they’re missing out.

Superficially, the Gracie Allen character fits the “Dumb Dora” trope. Yet George Burns, who was largely responsible for sketching out the attributes that Gracie brought to life, was often the first to counter the idea that her funny answers sprang from plain idiocy: What she employed, instead, was “illogical logic.” Her picture of the world had not popped out of its frame; it was just slightly askew. Thus when her friend Blanche Morton recommends a weight-loss plan that involves bending exercises and drinking lots of water, Gracie could casually reply: 

“Yeah, well, I tried this morning, but I kept spilling the water.”

A lot of the humor derives from her hearing the sentences people speak to her and stripping them of all context clues (stripping the sentences, obviously, not the people—she wouldn’t want them to catch cold). She thinks about what other people take for granted and reflects it back at a different angle. That, delivered in her light, tickly, champagne-bubble voice, made her irresistible in vaudeville and on radio and television. 

Still, don’t underestimate her. Given half a chance, she could be Gracie, Destroyer of Worlds. 

Through her illogical logic, she could wreak havoc on conventions and conventional people. For example—and this is what makes her particularly delightful to a 21st-century feminist—she was basically a Venus flytrap for mansplainers. Every so often, a male character would meet her and more or less go, “O-ho! Here is a female in error! I must correct her.” And, bless him, he’d try.

But there’d be someone stammering and disoriented by the end of that conversation. And it wouldn’t be Gracie. 

At her most glorious, she could even take down a man in a position of authority (though she never meant to). Doctors, police officers, judges—no one was immune. One of my favorite bits from the Burns and Allen show is what she does to a particularly unpleasant clerk at the DMV. I’ve included the video clip below. By its end, you’d almost feel sorry for the fellow if he weren’t such a nasty little sourpuss. 

Plus, let’s not forget, they might have been billed as “Burns and Allen,” but George readily acknowledged who the audience was there to see: Gracie, the one blessed with looks, charm, talent, and a mind that worked so screwily that you couldn’t wait to see it spring into action. Unlike Lucy, her Emmy-winning competition, she was the breadwinner, the one who everyone agreed had what it took to make a career in showbusiness. No “Aww, Ricky, I wanna be in the show!” for her. She was the show, and both in and out of the Burns and Allen universe, everyone knew it. 

So is deliriously, deliciously mixed-up Gracie Allen, in her own way, a proto-feminist hero? In this writer’s off-kilter mind, you bet.

[historysisco]

On This Day in New York City History January 20, 1896: Beloved comedian George Burns is born Nathan Birnbaum (January 20, 1896 – March 9, 1996) in New York City to Polish immigrants.

Burns' career started in vaudeville and continued through radio, TV and film. Burns with his wife Gracie Allen were one of the first successful husband and wife duos in media starring in radio and TV shows Burns and Allen and the George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950-1958.) Gracie would retire in 1958 and pass away in 1964. Burns through himself in his work, focusing on other TV projects, as well as, theater and stand up.

Burns' career had a Renaissance at the age of 79 when he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in the 1975 film The Sunshine Boys. He would continue to play up his now loveable and impish character in such films as the Oh God! Series and 18 Again. During his illustrious career Burns won an Emmy, a Grammy, and an Oscar.

Burns lived to the age of 100, passing away on March 9, 1996.

#GeorgeBurns #NathanBirnbaum #BurnsAndAllen #GeorgeBurnsAndGracieAllenShow #CinematicHistory #VaudevilleHistory #RadioHistory #TelevisionHistory #TVHistory #MovieHistory #TheatreHistory #JewishHistory #NewYorkHistory #NYHistory #NYCHistory #History #Historia #Histoire #Geschichte #HistorySisco

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